Secrets
by misfyt
Summary: When Harry finds Draco beaten and bloodied in the corridor in the middle of the night, his only option is to take care of the wounds himself. The shocking secret he learns of Draco will change their relationship forever.
1. Silent Tears

Silent Tears

When I first came across Draco lying there I have to admit that my first reaction was to keep walking and just leave him there. But something made me stop, I can't tell you what that something was, for I certainly didn't feel as though I were stopping of my own free will. Nonetheless, I did stop. The first thing I noticed was that Draco's whole body was

twitching convulsively. At first I thought he was shivering from the cold, but the shudders racking through his body were too sporadic and random. 

"Are you all right?" I whispered softly as I knelt down next to him. There was no response so I tentativly reached out and touched his shoulder. "Draco?" 

Besides the twitching he did not move at all. I gently turned him so that he was facing me. Oh God He was completely unconscious. In the dark I could barely see his face, but when I lay my hand on his cheek I could feel that there were dried tears running down it. Then I noticed his eye. It was bruised and swollen shut. It looked as though he'd gotten Into a fight with a bully, but I knew there was no student at Hogwarts who could reduce Draco Malfoy to tears and leave him unconscious. 

How in Merlin's name did you end up like this, Draco?

A loud part of my brain told me to just leave him alone, but I honestly couldn't. Even though I knew Draco wouldn't want to know I'd seen him like this, I had to help him. I pulled my wand out of my sleeve and pointed it at Draco.

"Ennervate," I whispered. 

Slowly Draco's eyes fluttered open, but judging by the unfocused look in them he could not see me in the darkness.

"Draco, I need to take you to the hospital wing, can you stand up?"

"What?" Draco at first looked disoriented, but then a sharpness came to his eyes. The look didn't so much convey that he knew where he was, it simply added to the intensity of his next statement. 

"No, please no. I don't want them to know. Please…" Draco began to fight despretly against me as though afraid I might do him harm.

"Stop Draco! All right, I wont take you to the hospital wing, but I can't just leave you here, can you please stand up?"

At my insistance Draco finally calmed down. I got to my feet and grabbed hold of Draco's wrists to try and help him to his feet. Eventually I got him in an upright position and I began to pull him up. Finally he was in a standing position and I let go of his wrists. 

"Okay then, let's get you…" But before I could finish my sentence Draco passed out again and fell against my chest.

"Damn you, Draco," I muttered as I managed to get a firm hold of him and lift him off his feet. I stood there in the corridor for a moment, my arms full of one unconscious, but surprisingly light Draco Malfoy, and wondered what to do. I knew that for some reason he really didn't want to go to the Hospital wing, though God knows I really wanted to take him there. I couldn't take him to the Slytherin dormitories, I wouldn't be able to get in and I couldn't leave him laying outside the portrait hole. There was only one thing left to do, I would have to take him to the Griffendor tower.

Fortunatly is was very late and all of my house mates had gone to their rooms already, so no one noticed as I carried Draco to my prefects bedroom. Thank God prefects don't have to share a bedroom I thought as I lay Draco across my bed. I noticed that he was still twitching every once in a while. I observed that the skin around his eye had been broken and he was bleeding, so I conjured a damp cloth and began to clean the wound, as well as wipe the dried tears off of his face. Suddenly it occurred to me.

Oh, God, what if that's not all?

Hessitantly I reached out to the collar of his robes, terrified of what I might see, but needing to know. As his robes fell away from his chest I gasped in horror. His entire body was covered not only in bruises and welts, but in dozens of not so shallow cuts. Perhaps the most horrifying, though, was the presence of dozens and dozens of old scars, all inexpertly healed. Proof that whatever had recently happened to Draco was not a singular event.

I moved the damp cloth gently over across his open wounds, trying to wipe away the blood which had dried in little rivers across his flesh. I'd like to say that I tended numbly to his wounds as if I were indifferent towards either my actions or of the boy lying across my bed, but this was not so. In truth I wept.

No one deserved this, this was inhuman. These were all deliberatly inflicted scars which would probably never go away. Somewhere in my mind the thought occurred to me that if it weren't for the scars, his body would have been almost inhumanly beautiful. But as it was, he was disfigured for life. And so I wept.

Using my slight aquaintence with magical healing, I closed his open wounds. At least those would not scar. Though at the time I could not think what to do about the bruises. Eventually his convulsive shuddering stopped, for which I was very glad. Not knowing what had caused them made it very disconcerting. Now Draco just lay there, still and peaceful. The only movement from him was the gentle rise and fall of his chest. 

His robes, I realized were soaked in his blood. Though it did not show up against the black, they were still slightly sticky and smelled strongly of blood. I threw them down on the ground to tend to later. I carefully pulled my blanket over Draco's naked body, hoping he wouldn't be too upset when he woke to find I'd taken his clothes.

"What kind of shit have you gotten yourself into, Draco?" I wondered aloud.

I glanced over at the clock and saw that it was twelve O'clock. Twelve O'clock at night and a bruised, beaten Draco was passed out in my bed. Great

As he was sleeping soundly I decided it would be all right to leave him alone for a while. So I left for the prefects bathroom to take a quick shower.

When I returned I tried to be quiet, but as I closed the door, I saw Draco's eyes flutter open. For some time Draco just silently stared at the ceiling. Then I saw him attempt to sit up, reaching his hand out and glancing around as though he were looking for something.

"What so you need, Draco?"

"Water." The word came out of Draco's mouth in a broken barely whisper.

I went over to my dresser where there was a pitcher of water and poured him a glass. I knelt on the bed next to him, placing my hand behind his neck, encouraging him to sit up a little. Then I placed the glass at his lips and allowed him to drink. At first he choked on the water, but soon he managed to drain the glass.

"Better now Draco?" I asked as I let his head fall back down on my pillow.

I carefully watched his eyes, for a long time they had been out of focus. But now I could see clarity and dawning revelations come into his eyes.

"Where am I?" Only slight panic filtered through his voice.

"Draco, it's all right, you're here in my room, Harry's room:

He now looked over at me as if realizing for the first time that there was someone else in the room with him.

"Harry's room?" He asked as if he couldn't quite figure out that I was Harry.

"Yes, don't worry. You'll be all right. I healed your cuts for you."

It took a few moments for this statement to fully set in, as if he couldn't remember why he needed healing. But when it hit, it hit hard. His eyes became wide and his face was painted in panic. He reached out and grabbed my robes.

""Don't! You can't tell! No! He'll kill me! Please! I…you can't let them know! God, no!" Draco's words all came out in an unstable jumble. One could easily mistake him for a madman. I couldn't blame him, though. Whatever he had been through must have been pretty horrendous.

"Shh, I haven't told anyone, calm down, please." I placed my hand on his chest, pushing him back down . I was surprised by how warm he now was. Earlier he was frigid.

Draco finally calmed down and lay there just staring at me.

"Are you going to be all right, Draco?"

"I ought to be. But he was really mad this time." Draco was no longer looking at me.

"Who, Draco? Who did this to you?"

"Dad," he whispered so low I barely caught it.

Oh God. And I thought my home life was fucked up

"I'm sorry." The words felt inadequate, as they left my mouth, but I really was sorry. Not just sorry for what his Dad had been doing to him, but sorry for thinking he was an arrogant prick all these years.

"Not your fault."

"No, but I wish I'd been nicer all these years. Who need's enemies when your family's so fucked up?"

Draco laughed at this. Not a happy laugh, rather a morbid laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.

"I like how you put that, " he finally looked back up at me and smiled.

Considering all that I had seen and learned of Draco that night, I'm not sure why this should have struck me so much. but I occurred to me that I had never seen Draco smile without malice before. He was truly gorgeous when he smiled.

He should smile more often

"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" The smile vanished.

I felt a blush creep across my face at the thought of what I'd been thinking just then.

"Nothing" I said as I looked away.

"What do you mean nothing. Look Harry, normally I couldn't give a shit what you're thinking about. But currently I feel more than a little exposed and either you can talk to me or you can give me back my God-dammed robes." Draco's malicious grin was back. 

This was the Draco I recognized, though now I wasn't sure it he were serious or not. It's true it was an awkward situation. So he did notice that he wasn't wearing anything, damn. My thoughts went to his ruined robes laying on the ground. I hoped he wouldn't be to upset about it all. Well it wouldn't hurt to just be honest, it was the least I could do considering that he truly was exposed. This was indeed the side of Draco that no one was allowed to see, least of all me. Dammit

With my face surely redder than ever I decided to go ahead and tell him.

"I was just thinking that…well…I thought you had …I mean to say that…dammit, you looked really beautiful when you smiled and I was thinking that you should smile more often."

"Oh!" Draco said, sounding truly shocked. But then the shock turned into laughter. "I'm sorry, I really didn't expect that. You had a really odd look on your face and I just assumed that you were thinking something mean about me."

"That's all right." 

"No it's not, It was ungrateful. I mean, there's no reason for you to have helped me and there's no reason for me to believe you would think ill of me, though surely I deserve it. I shouldn't have gotten angry, I think I just don't know any other form of social interaction. Forgive me?"

"All right, if it'll make you feel any better, I forgive you."

For a while neither of us said anything and we just sat listening to the silence. Or at least that was what I was doing. Finally, though, Draco interrupted the silence.

"Why did you help me? I doubt even my own housemates would have, and I've been awful to you for years."

Why did I help him?

"I'm not entirely sure. You just looked so pitiful, lying there unconscious on the floor, tear stains on your face and you were shaking all over. I couldn't just leave you there, so I carried you back here. I wasn't actually until then that I realized just how severely you were beat up."

"You carried me?" Draco's eyes widened in shock.

"How the hell else did you imagine I got you here?"

"I don't know, dragged me, or used magic at least."

"Oh, I guess that would have made sense. Somehow it never occurred to me. I'm sorry if the thought of being carried upset you, I didn't mean to demean you or anything."

"No, I'm not upset, just…impressed. I mean, I don't think I'm that light."

"It was probably adrenaline. You nearly frightened me to death, you know. You should have seen yourself, shaking convulsively like that, it was horrible, I didn't know what was wrong with you!"

What Draco said next shocked and angered me more than anything else that evening.

"After effects of the cruciatus, it's normal." Draco lowered his eyes and turned his head away from me.

"Oh God." For a while that's all I could think to say, but finally I worked up my courage to say more.

"Your father used the cruciatus on you? That's illegal, I mean obviously there's nothing legal about beating your own son, but the cruciatus is really illegal. Why don't you report him?"

"I can't, don't you see? Father would kill me. I know a lot of kids say that, but I really mean it. Father would literally find me and kill me, or at least make one of his men kill me."

Draco turned his face back towards me, there were silent tears running down his face. I occurred to me then, that he had probably never told anyone about this. I alone knew Draco's secret. How many times had he probably been aching to confide in someone, but been too terrified to. The very thought brought a tear to my own eye.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered as I reached a hand out to Draco's face, hoping to dry away his tears. It did no good, though, his tears would not stop flowing down his cheeks. So I did the only other thing I could think of. I bent down and held Draco in my arms and allowed him a good cry.

Draco held onto me with a death grip and buried his face in my robes. We stayed like that until he finally stopped crying and we both fell asleep.


	2. Anger and Laughter

Anger and Laughter

The next morning when I woke I could not have been more confused. I'd been dreaming about Cho; the type of dream I used to have a lot, but not recently. When I awoke I thought I was still dreaming, for usually when I wake up, I'm most certainly the only one in my bed. I thought that if I kept my eyes closed, then the dream would not go away. For it truly seemed to me that I was holding some lovely creature in my arms. I sighed contentedly as I brushed my hands over angel soft skin, drawing this heavenly creature deeper into my embrace. I was surprised how real my dream felt. 

Maybe it is real, perhaps if I open my eyes I might be able to see this wonderful being in my arms

So I slowly opened my eyes, the sensation of another warm body against my own did not fade away. Oh so slowly I looked down and saw…Draco Malfoy!

Oh God, he's naked, what did I do? Am I naked? No…I still have on my school robes. Why the fuck is Draco in my bed?

I carefully released Draco from my arms and backed away, he was still sound asleep.

Thank God

Then I caught sight of all the bruises and scars on his body. The memory of last night now hit me like a sledgehammer.

Oh God

I couldn't decide which would have been worse, waking up with Draco because I'd slept with him or because he'd been beaten and had the cruciatus used on him by his own father. The memory of Draco shaking uncontrollably passed through my mind, then of Draco crying himself to sleep.

I didn't want to think about it.

I looked back at the sleeping Draco, observing now in the light how the dark bruises contrasted with his pale skin.

Oh! Draco's Naked!

I remembered his ruined robes which still lay on the ground.

Shit, he can't just walk out of my room stark naked

I went over to my dresser and pulled out one of my own robes. It had a Griffindor crest on it, of course. Using my wand I managed to transform it into a Slytherin crest.

Perfect! Eat your heart out Professor MacGonnagal!

I then went back over to Draco's side and nudged him lightly, trying to avoid his bruises.

"Draco… Draco wake up." I whispered. 

He didn't stir at all. I tried to nudge him more forcibly and I spoke his name as loud as I dared. He still wouldn't wake. Suddenly concerned I placed my hand along his jaw line to fell his pulse. I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt it beating strongly.

Well that's not the problem, but damn he's a heavy sleeper 

I'd have shouted to wake him, but the last think either of us wanted was some curious little Griffendor stopping by to see what the commotion was. This would be a very hard situation to explain. Well, actually considering there was no possibility of Draco's secret home life being publicly known, there would be only one course of action if we were discovered: lie. And there really was only one possible lie for this scene, and frankly that would have been fairly easy to put in words. But there was no way I wanted to have to make anyone believe that I was fucking Draco Malfoy. So that meant that I had to be very quiet and discrete.

And so I sat down and waited as patiently as possible for Draco to wake up. As I sat watching Draco, I couldn't help but entertain bizarre thoughts.

What if I did get caught with Draco in my bed? Would anyone even believe that I was sleeping with him? Well it's true that I've never had a successful relationship with a girl. Maybe they might easily assume I'm gay. That couldn't be good for my reputation. But, frankly, I'm not getting laid as it is, so nothing would change. But would anyone truly believe that I could want to date Draco? Well, he is really fine. Really fine? Where did that come from? Although, I guess I'd know, I have seen him naked. Seen him naked? No shit, Harry, you're sitting here staring at a butt naked Draco Malfoy spread across your bed!

Somehow it wasn't until this last thought did it occur to me that it was unnatural for me to be staring to intently at Draco while he was naked. It seemed so perverse, all of the sudden, carrying Draco to my room and stripping him. Sure at the time it was a practical measure, but the fact that I'd left him naked and was now staring at him, it was just wrong.

Looking down at the robes I held in my hand I decided that at least there was one problem I could solve.

Draco seemed to have mostly tossed off the blankets in his sleep and was now laying flat on his stomach, so it was very easy for me to drape the robes across his back. I carefully pulled his arms through the sleeves and then gently turned him over to button up the robes, starting at the hem. I was truly surprised that I hadn't woken him up yet, but when I'd buttoned him up to halfway up his chest I heard:

"Good Morning."

In my surprise and fright I jerked and my hands slammed against a large purple bruise on his chest. Draco barely let out a cry, but I looked up at his face and saw him wince, shutting his eyes tightly against the pain.

"Oh God Draco, I am so sorry. You frightened me, I didn't realize you had woken up. Are you OK?"

"I'm all right, don't worry. I'm just a little sore." Slowly Draco raised himself to a sitting position. "You're pretty jumpy, though. Are you sure *****you're* all right?"

"I'm fine, I was just…" for some reason I just couldn't think of the words so instead I pointed to his half buttoned robed as an explanation.

Draco looked down at his exposed, then back up at me with a malicious looking grin.

"Undressing me?" He asked with one eyebrow raised.

"God No! I was dressing you, not undressing you! What do you think I am? I've gone through quite a lot of trouble for you. I didn't have to, you know! I could have left you on the floor in the corridor to bleed to death!"

The look of malice was gone from Draco's face instantly.

"I'm sorry to be such a bother," Draco's voice was barely audible, "I'll just go then."

I realized as he crawled off the bed that there were tears in his eyes, which he was desperately trying to hide.

Before he reached the door, though, I jumped up and grabbed him.

"Draco, stop. I'm sorry I yelled at you. I had no right, it was cruel and heartless." I turned him to face me, grabbing hold of his shoulders. "Please forgive me?"

Draco was still holding back his tears, so he merely nodded in reply.

I started mindlessly buttoning his robes up the rest of the way.

"Look, Draco, it really wasn't that much trouble. And If I had to, I honestly would to do it again. I'm serious. My guess is that I'm the only one who knows about your father."

Draco nodded his head slightly.

"I really want to help you Draco, all right. The only reason I yelled at you just now is that I was…embarrassed by what you said."

"It was meant to be a joke. No one understands my jokes."

"Oh." Now I couldn't help but laugh.

"You see that's what I'm talking about. I make a joke and I get yelled at. Then I'm totally serious and I get laughed at."

I just couldn't stop laughing, and soon Draco was laughing too. Finally we got it under control and managed to stop laughing. We were leaning on each other for support at the end, trying to catch our breaths.

"Draco," I finally managed to speak again, "you know I meant what I said. I do hope you can come to me if you're in trouble. I *will* do anything I can to help you. Do you understand me?"

"Yea, but just the words. I don't understand why, though." He now moved so that he could look me in the eye.

"Because Draco, I really don't think you have anyone else. I mean, what would you have done last night if I hadn't found you?"

"I don't know. Usually I would have crawled my way back to my room and tried to heal my own wounds. But I doubt I would have made it last night."

"No shit, you were unconscious on the floor of the corridor. I'm surprised no one else found you. But Draco, how long has this been going on, with your father beating you?"

"I…I don't really remember a time when he didn't. It's just gotten a whole lot worse this year."

"Oh Draco…" I pulled him suddenly close against my chest. "I am so sorry. I don't know how you've survived all these years."

"I guess I survived by acting like an arrogant prick. That and making inappropriate jokes."

I almost laughed at that, but then I remembered his earlier statement and I realized that I had no idea if that were a joke or if he were serious, so I remained silent, just holding him.

"You know Draco, I think the real reason that I feel the need to help you is my own selfishness. I…I think in a way I pleased to have found someone who's home life is more fucked up than my own."

"What, you mean your parents abuse you, too?"

I let out a scoff. "I can't believe you've forgotten. I have no parents. I was raised by my aunt and uncle who hated me so much that the only reason they didn't beat me was that they would have seen it as a waste of energy. So instead they completely neglected me. I didn't have a room of my own for most of my childhood. They made me sleep in the fucking closet under the fucking stairs. My cousin beat me up, though. No where near as bad as what you've experienced, but I still got the shit beat out of me at least once a day, my aunt and uncle merely encouraged him. For eleven years I never knew a single gentle touch or a kind word, or even the meaning of love. And the only memory I have of either of my real parents is the sounds of my mother's screams as she was murdered.

"Even then, I don't think I minded that much, except what really bugged me all these years was that no one ever understood. Sure some people felt sorry for me, but no one *understood*. And imagine having Ron as a friend. Ron with his huge happy family which he just takes for granted. I've never told anyone this, but I really don't think Ron deserves his family. I mean he actually resents them! And they've done nothing but love him. I always wished that for once he knew what it would be like for his brothers to take turns beating the shit our of him, or to live for eleven years and never once have someone even wish him a happy birthday, If only once he knew what it was like to tend to his own wounds because no one else ever would."

My voice was so full of bitterness and bile, I think I must have frightened Draco. I realized that instead of holding Draco in a comforting manner, I held him extremely tight to my chest, my clenched fists digging into his back. I forced myself to relax and let go of him, allowing my hands to hand loose at my sides. At first Draco did not move but then he slowly backed away from me.

"I'm sorry, Draco, I didn't mean to get so upset."

"No don't be sorry. I'm actually sorry. Somehow I always imagined you living with a loving family. I mean, you were 'Harry Potter The-Boy-Who-Lived.' Everyone, or at least in my mind, worshiped and loved you. For years now I've resented you, just like you resented Ron. But you're right, it is somehow nice to know that I'm not the only one with at 'fucked up home life' as you put it."

"It's funny, isn't it? I think in a way I hated you because I imagined you with a father who loved and supported you and would do anything for you. I guess we both misunderstood each other."

"I really never thought I'd say this, but you and I are really frighteningly similar."

"Don't worry, Draco, I'll never tell anyone."

"Thanks. I think we both have enough troubles at home without the help of our school houses hating us too."

"I can just imagine if I walked into the Griffindor commons room and said 'you know, Draco's really not that bad, I think we should try being nice to him.' They would either try to beat some sense into me or hunt you down and beat your ass."

We laughed briefly at the joke that really shouldn't have been that funny, but then Draco's face turned serious.

"We have to go on hating each other, don't we? I mean, in class, I truly can't just show up one day and decide that I feel like being nice to you, can I?"

"No, I don't think so. It would raise too many questions. Questions that I don't think you're prepared to answer."

"I wish it didn't have to be this way. Odd as it sounds, I really wish we could be friends."

"Me too," I said, surprised to find that I truly meant it. "But I think it's best for both of us is we said goodbye here and left it at that."

"I know you're right, but umm…I don't even know how I'm supposed to leave here. There's no way I can walk into the middle of the Griffendor commons room in full daylight."

"Don't worry, I promise you, no one will see you."

"What?" Draco looked at me as if I'd gone mad.

I walked over to my dresser and pulled out my fathers invisibility cloak. Silently I hoped that my newfound faith in Draco was not misplaced.

"I'm going to let you borrow this, but only if you promise to return it to me. It's an invisibility cloak, my father left it to me." I unfolded it and handed it to Draco.

"You're really going to trust me with that?"

"Well, the way I see it, either I do, or I walk out of here with you on my arm and let everyone assume that I let you fuck me."

"I find that a valid point, but what on earth do you mean 'let me fuck you' why not the other way around?"

"Oh come on, the whole house knows I'm entirely incapable of getting laid. The mere thought of me successfully seducing the hottest guy in Slytherin would be truly beyond belief. But the though of you seducing me, that they might believe."

Both of us blushed violently.

Why did I even bring up that topic of conversation? You're stupid, Harry

"But here, this cloak will make you completely invisible," I said eager to change the subject. "You'll be able to get out of here, and get over to Slytherin House without anyone realizing you were coming from Griffendor. Just don't run into anyone or let anyone see the cloak, OK?"

Draco hesitantly took the cloak from my hand and placed it around his shoulders, leaving just his head visible.

"When you want your head invisible, you just have to raise the hood. But wait, before you do that…"

I pulled my wand out of my sleeve and pointed it at his face. Draco flinched noticeably when I did this.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to curse you." I muttered a spell and then pulled my wand away.

"I know I ought to trust you, but what did you just do?"

"Well, I don't know how to get rid of bruises, so I cast an illusion on your face so that no one would be able to see your black eye. Believe me, it looks a lot better this way."

"Oh, thanks." Draco smiled at me with the same smile I'd earlier been caught admiring.

"Well, anyway, since you can't go about opening doors without people getting suspicious, I'll walk you out of Griffendor house. I won't be able to see you, though, and we mustn't be heard talking to each other, so when you are safely through the portrait hole, give me some sort of sign so I wont close the door on you, OK?"

"All right" Draco's floating head nodded and then disappeared. 

"Follow close, Draco," I said quietly as I opened my door. Hoping that I was indeed being followed I moved towards the commons room. Fortunately there weren't too many people about. Glancing up at the clock I saw that breakfast would be starting soon. I calmly opened the door and tried not to look awkward as I waited for the invisible Draco to pass through and give me a sign to close the portrait.

I nearly did forget to close it, though, when I felt Draco's sign. Two invisible lips pressing softly against my own.


	3. Denial

Denial

Draco must have headed off to his room, though I couldn't tell as he was invisible. I finally remembered to close the portrait hole and I slowly wandered off to breakfast. When I arrived at the Great Hall I discovered that most of the school had indeed already begun their breakfast. As I made my way to the Griffindor I made a passing mental note that Draco wasn't yet at the Slytherin table.

My head was is a bit of a daze and I just sat at the first seat I saw available. I was sharply brought back to reality by two voices shouting my name in unison. Looking up I saw Ron and Hermione looking rather annoyed that I hadn't sat down in the seat they had reserved for me. Feeling somewhat dumb I moved over to sit with the two.

"Since when do you not sit with us?" Hermione demanded.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. I guess I was just spacing out or something, I just didn't see you two."

"You didn't see us jumping up and down and waving for you to sit with us?"

"No, Herm, I didn't. Pass the eggs, Ron." Something told me this was a conversation I didn't want to have.

"Sure, here," Ron passed the eggs on to me, but not without helping himself first. "So, uh, you OK Harry? You usually don't sleep late, is there something wrong? Have a rough night last night?"

Oh God, I am not prepared to answer questions about last night

"I'm fine, nothings wrong, It just took me a while to fall asleep last night, no biggie."

I hurridly began piling breakfast on my plate, though once it was there it didn't look very appetizing, so I just poked at my eggs. From the corner of my I saw Draco enter the Great Hall and sit next to Crabbe and Goyle. Hoping no one would notice, I turned my head slightly towards where he was sitting. I saw that he wasn't eating either and he looked rather annoyed with Crabbe and Goyle. Other than that, he looked surprisingly normal considering that he looked half dead last night.

I forced myself to look back down at my eggs and began stabbing them mercilessly; runny egg yolk splattered all over my plate.

"Whoa, Harry! What did your eggs ever do to you? Can't you eat like a normal person?" Ron reached out to still my fork, which I set down.

"I'm not hungry," I mumbled as I pushed away my plate.

"Ooooohhh! I know what's wrong with Harry!" Hermione grinned knowingly, "I've seen this before, Harry's in love!"

I nearly fell backwards out of my seat at this announcement.

"I am NOT," I practically seethed, shocked by her presumption.

"Oh no? 10 sickles say you dreamt about some girl or other last night!"

Oh, a girl, that's right

"Actually…I think I did," I finally confessed, biting my lip in penance for what I thought she meant originally.

I allowed Hermione to keep her smug look as long as she wanted to remain willfully misinformed.

God help me if she knew what I thought she had been referring to. But I'm not in love with Draco! That would be silly. I'm not in love with him. I'm not

My eyes wandered over to the young man with whom I most emphatically was NOT in love with. His former smile was long gone and was now replaced with a scowl. I realized, though, that I was scowling too.

After a while I heard Ron and Hermione's chairs scrape the floor as they stood up from the table.

"Come on, Harry, if you're not going to eat breakfast you might as well make an effort not to be late to class."

Hermione tugged my ear playfully as she walked past me. I shrugged out of my seat and followed obediently. Hermione marched off ahead as Ron and I walked behind. 

"It's OK, Harry, I know what you're going through." Ron patted me on the shoulder.

I hesitantly looked over at him, not entirely sure what it was exactly that Ron though I was going. I saw, though that he was staring at Hermione. 

"You're still stuck on Hermione?" I whispered.

Ron nodded silently. It was fairly common knowledge that Hermione refused to date Ron and that Ron refused to get over it. She never gave any reason, but Ron was sure that she was secretly seeing someone.

"So tell me, Harry, who're you stuck on?"

"No one, OK? Really."

"But you said you dreamt about some girl!"

"Yea, but just some leftover dream about Cho, nothing serious."

"Ooohh, I get it. You're just sexually frustrated in general! You know, you have better be careful, or you'll end up sleeping with just any old person, and then end up regretting it."

My thoughts went back to early that morning when I woke up with Draco in my bed. Sure I'd been dreaming about Cho, but it sure wasn't Cho I'd been bloody well feeling up when I woke. I quickly banished that thought from my brain and turned back to Ron.

"You know, Ron, you sound like you know what you're talking about. So who'd you sleep with?"

Ron laughed bitterly, "There is no way in Hell that I'm going to tell you that."

"I guess that's fair." I allowed Ron to drop the conversation, God knows I didn't want to give him permission to have free reign on my secrets, so I bally well wasn't going to force them out of him.

Funny, it seems like we've all got secrets from each other 

That day Potions class was with the Slytherins as usual, but there really wasn't anything usual about it. Normally the classroom would have been filled with malicious banter led by Draco, but today Draco walked right past me and sat at his desk, staring down at his hands folded in front of me. This normally wouldn't have bothered me at all, truly. I was in truth not a little sick of Draco's previous habit of insulting me and my friends. Nonetheless, it seemed wrong for him to ignore us completely. He simply walked right past us as if we weren't there at all and sat down stiffly in his chair. It was so unnatural, so unlike Draco. I was not the only one to notice either.

Usually Draco had such a commanding presence he filled the room and drew the attention of everyone in it. It was hard to ignore Draco, and it seemed he knew it. So when Draco walked into a room and ignored every living sole in it, everyone noticed. It was Pansy Parkinson who approached him first.

"Draco, baby, what's wrong?" She asked placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Sod off, Parkinson," Draco bit back, flinging her hand away. It was in fact an awsome thing to see Draco retain every bit of his pride, even when being defensive.

Pansy knew better than to push it any further, so she merely backed away as though nothing had happened and all of the class hadn't just seen her being rejected by Draco. No one else dared talk to Draco after that, though and Draco didn't bother talking to anyone else. I couldn't help but wonder at Draco's behavior. Surely he wasn't acting like this because his father had beaten him last night. He's undoubtedly had to show up to class many times after being beaten by his father, but he'd never acted like this before. This was something no one had ever seen and no one quite knew how to deal with it.

Ron, however was more than pleased.

"Get a load of that, Harry, Draco didn't insult us at all once during the whole of potions!" He pointed out gleefully as we left the dungeons after class. "It was great!"

"I don't know, It was kind of odd, didn't you think, I mean, he really wasn't himself."

"Who bloody cares! Malfoy's a complete bastard no matter what he does, but I prefer a complete bastard who doesn't insult me to one that does! You know I have half a mind to go insult him while he's down."

"Ron, that's an awful thing to say, don't you dare do that!"

"What, you're actually defending Malfoy? I don't believe it have you gone mad?"

"I'm not defending his past actions, I'm just saying that I don't want to see you acting like that!"

"Whatever," Ron sulked.

"Ron, Harry, wait up!" Hermione ran to catch up with us.

"What's up Hermi, stopped to ask Snape for extra homework?" Ron asked bitterly under his breath. I silenced him with an elbow to the ribs.

"So Harry, wasn't that odd, Malfoy's behavior today? What do you thinks up with that? I mean, he usually lives to insult us. Do you think he's sick?"

"Why on earth should I know?" I asked, struggling in vain to keep the defensiveness out of my voice.

"I was just asking, It was more a rhetorical question than anything. It was odd, though, like there was something wrong with him."

"Well Hermione, you're the smart one, why don't you tell us what's wrong with him. But for my part, I don't see that there's anything but improvement," Ron pointed out.

"Hmm… maybe Draco's in love too."

At that I nearly choked, but I managed to wheeze out a reply.

"Considering the way he treated Pansy, I seriously doubt it."

"Who said he had to be in love with Pansy? I mean, just because two people look like their meant to be together it doesn't mean their supposed to be. Some of the best couples are far from obvious to the rest of the world."

"Look, Herm, philosophize on your own time, for my part, it is a little too soon after breakfast for me to want to think about Malfoy being in love with anyone." Ron made fake vomiting noises and I tried to pretend to laugh. Hermione just glared. 

"Ron if you ever truly fall in love I'll be extremely surprised." At that, Hermione stormed off.

"Bitch," was all Ron could say in response.

I had to struggle with my mixed emotions to that conversation. It seemed that perhaps Hermione was being insensitive to Ron's feelings, but at the same time, what she said had made sense, as much as I really didn't want to confess to agreeing with her. I had to wonder about Hermione, though, it did seem that she spoke with a fair bit of conviction just to put her words down to speculation. Did she really know what she was talking about? Who was Hermione in love with? Did she really know as well as she claimed how to spot love?

Oh God, what if Hermione's right about everything? I shook my head firmly trying to rid my head of unwelcome thoughts.

I am not in love with Draco. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. It can't be true. Can it? I mean it's not unlikely for Hermione to be wrong once in her life, is it?

All day long my mind kept going around in circles. I just couldn't pass off what Hermione had said. The fact was that I never took anything she said with a grain of salt, it was always most likely that she was right. But I didn't, couldn't believe her now. 

Maybe, just maybe she's right in another way. Maybe I am in love. Not with Draco though. God, no. I must be in love with someone else. That's it. I'm in love with someone, but I just don't know who. And Draco's in love with someone else too, anyone else. Yes that's it, we just don't know who we're in love with. Because obviously I don't care at all about Draco. I don't think about him endlessly. Just watch me not think about Draco. Not thinking about Draco…Not thinking about Draco…Not thinking about Draco…Not thinking about Draco. See, I'm not thinking at all about Draco. Besides, Draco and I decided that we would say goodbye at the Griffindor tower and leave it at that. And that's what we did. Draco didn't talk to me at all today. He didn't look at me today. He didn't even insult me at all today. I bet he didn't even think about me. I bet he doesn't even give a fuck about me. Damn it he probably couldn't even give a fuck if I died. He doesn't care at all that I fucking saved his life. He's just an arrogant prick!

  
"Harry!" Hermione suddenly pulled me out of my thoughts. "I know you may be thwarted in love, but it's really no reason to take it out on that poor unsuspecting pillow."

"I AM NOT IN LOVE!!!!" I screamed for the whole commons room to hear. I then threw down the pillow I had evidently been beating up and I ran upstairs to bed. Once in my bed, though, I didn't sleep. I just kept playing the past twenty-four hours in my head. Repeatedly my mind stopped at the moment when I thought Draco had kissed me.

You fool, he was invisible, you probably fucking imagined it

*********************************************

The following week followed much in the same vein. I'm sorry to say that my mood did not improve. All week I kept looking over at Draco, just to prove that he still didn't give a fuck about me. Draco kept being irritable to Crabbe and Goyle and he kept walking into class totally aloof and totally ignoring me and my friends. Nothing changed, nothing happened, frankly the week was boring. That is, until Friday potions with the Slytherins.

When I arrived in potions that day I was determined not to look over at Draco. Instead I walked straight over to my desk, not looking up at all. I could feel my stomach turn in knots as I forced myself to look down at my desk instead of glancing across the room. My eyes shot up instantly, however, when I heard I fight break out on the other side of the room. I couldn't hear what the argument was over, all I really saw was the conclusion.

I heard Draco shout, "Bite me!" and saw him punch Goyle in the face.

Damn, that takes gall, even if you are Draco Malfoy

The huge boy fell backwards off his seat and hit his head on the corner of the table behind him, leaving him unconscious on the floor. Draco stood over him, fists clenched and seething.

For a while no one moved, we all stood staring at Draco in disbelief. The first one to move was Professor Snape. I looked up at him as he approached Draco. His eyes were a mixture of disbelief, shock, and fury.

"Mister Malfoy, do you wish to explain this rash attack on your fellow housemate and need I add friend?"

Draco turned his head up towards his head of house with a sneer.

"Friend?" Draco paused at this word as if truly trying to contemplate its meaning, then continued. "Forgive me sir, but the argument was between me and that son of a bitch.," he pointed down at the unconscious boy on the floor, his sneering becoming even more pronounced.

"Very well then, MR. Malfoy, since you are opposed to the company of your friends, you shall have a taste of your enemy." Snape had an odd look on his face as if enjoying a private joke. "Go sit with Potter, you shall be his partner for the rest of class."

I could not bring myself to look at Draco, so I kept my eyes fixed on Snape. His face had now become unreadable as his eyes followed Draco over to me. Not that his expression was blank, I'd just never seen this expression before and didn't know how to read it. I figured Draco must have been standing behind me, for I saw Snape command Hermione to move out of her seat. I glanced, then at Hermione, I figured she'd have been more than irritated by Snape's command, but she merely got out of her seat obediently and smiled gently at me. I looked back up and saw that the whole class was staring at me, I would have looked away, but I was still afraid to look over at Draco who was now sitting next to me. 

Finally Snape began the lesson and the class's attention was finally taken away from me. I now chanced glancing over to Draco. His face, too was entirely unreadable, but I had a suspicion that his expression was similar to that on my own face.

I now couldn't tear my eyes away from Draco and likewise Draco's eyes were staring intently at me. To anyone watching it must have merely appeared as a stare-down of two enemies. I was vaguely aware of Snape giving instructions for the days assignment, yet still Draco and I stared at each other uneasily. It had been nearly a week since we had been this close. That strange night when we had been so oddly close, not only physically but emotionally too, sharing private details that we normally wouldn't dream of telling an other person, let alone a person considered an enemy for so long. It struck me as odd. For so many years Draco and I had been enemies, for that one night I dare say we were friends, but now as we sit side by side, staring at each other, I have no idea what we are anymore. If there is any rift between us right now, it surely is not the result of years of petty rivalry. I can tell as we look at each other that the same feeling of closeness we had that night has changed into something else. I'm not sure, but overall the feeling is uncomfortable. But whatever the emotion was that passed between the two of us as we stared each other down, it was intense.

Finally I heard Snape end his lecture and the class began brewing.

"Do you know what we're supposed to be doing?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes, but only because I've made this type of potion before."

"Good, 'cause I didn't hear anything Snape just said." 

Finally I managed to look away from Draco and we began to make our potion.

"Draco," I said working up my courage to attempt a normal conversation in public. "Why did you hit Goyle?"

"No real reason, actually. I mean he didn't do anything particularly out of the ordinary for him, anyway. Honestly… I think I'm just used to working my frustration out on you, but it got redirected at Goyle."

"You mean that you would have otherwise hit me like you hit Goyle?!" I asked in a shocked, panicked sort of whisper.

"No, I'd probably have issued some particularly cutting remark, but that wouldn't have fazed Goyle, so I punched him." 

I looked over at Draco as saw that he was now working his frustration out on a poor unsuspecting toad's spleen.

"What are you frustrated at now?" I asked pointing at the toad's spleen he was mutilating with a knife.

Draco ignored my question and continued his attack on the spleen.

"If you keep chopping like that your going to ruin that." I reached my hand over and placed it over his. At the touch he did stop his violent chopping. He began again, though, once I removed my hand.

"Look Harry, I don't think it's a good idea for us to talk in public."

"OK, if that's what you want."

"I think it's best."

So we finished the rest of the class without talking except for occasional commands issued to me as to what to do next with the potion.

As we left potions, Draco seemed to pause as if he wanted to say something to me, but was afraid of who might be listening. Before I got too far away from the Dungeons, though, Draco shocked me by suddenly grabbing me by the collar of my robes and slamming me against the wall. I was confused for a moment, thinking that he was truly angry at me. He moved his mouth next to my ear, I could feel his hot breath against by skin.

"Meet me tonight at the north tower, alone. Eight-thirty." He then lowered his voice even more than before and whispered, "I'll have your cloak, I just want to talk." He then released me and stormed off.


	4. A Precious Gift

A Precious Gift

I watched, stunned, as Draco stormed out of the Dungeon. Instantly Ron was at my side, then followed by Hermione, who came out of Potions quite a bit after everyone else and has missed evidently all but Draco storming off.  
"Harry, are you all right? Did Draco hurt you at all?" Ron demanded.

"Draco attacked Harry?" Hermione asked seeming incredulous and confused.

"No, he didn't hurt me, he just had…words for me."

Hermione heaved a sigh of relief.

"Good, but Harry, you just give me the word and I'll beat the shit out of that asshole." Ron's face showed that he was deadly serious.

"Ron, don't. This is just between Draco and myself, it has nothing whatsoever to do with you so stay out of it, okay?"

"What's going on Harry? What did that bastard say to you anyway?"

"Nothing! Oh, Okay…he wanted to meet me tonight alone." I was amazed by the fact that though I spoke the truth, Ron surely was interpreting my words only as he wanted to.

"You're not going to are you!? I mean it very well could be suicide, or very definitely some sort of trap!"

"I never said whether or not I was going, but I did say that it was none of your business, so please just drop it."

Ron just glowered at me. I realized that Hermione had not spoken at all on the subject.

"What?" I asked turning to Hermione. "You have nothing to say?"

"No, I agree with you, it is none of our business. I'm sure you're old enough to make your own decisions and live with the results."

I was very surprised by Hermione's response. I'd never before been so impressed with how mature and reasonable Hermione could be.

"Thank you," I said stiffly. 

The rest of the day I struggled internally with whether I should go meet Draco or not. I knew that I wanted to go, but I didn't know why I wanted to. I filled my head with many different answers as to why I should want to go, but I still didn't know which answer was the right one. I guess in the end I was just curious. I wanted to know why Draco had been acting the way he had over this past week, and why he suddenly wanted to talk to me privately. The truth may have been that I just wanted to see Draco, but at the time I was not ready to admit that to myself.

So at eight-thirty I headed towards the North Tower. When I got there it was completely abandoned, not surprisingly, as it was never visited by the students at Hogwarts. I sat for a while, waiting for Draco to show up, entertaining various thoughts in my head. Mainly I thought about Draco. I tried to think sensible thoughts about him. The reasonable part of my brain wanted me to believe that Draco hated me. I knew where we stood when we hated each other, but somehow I knew that it was anything but hate that persuaded Draco to finally agree to talk to me after a week. The predominate thought in my brain was how Draco's breath felt against my skin. 

Was that intentional? Did he realize what he was doing? 

When I finally saw him I was first greeted by his disembodied head, which was then followed by the rest of his body as he removed my invisibility cloak.

"I told you I'd return it," he said, handing me the silvery cloak.

"This isn't the only reason you wanted me there, though, was it?"

"No, I wanted us to talk."

"About what? If I remember correctly, you haven't spoken one word to me all week." I was embarrassed to realize that I sounded like a scorned lover.

"Of course I didn't talk to you. It was you who said we should say goodbye and leave it at that. Remember? You weren't upset that we hadn't spoken, where you?"

"No," I lied. I'm not good at lying, it had been getting irritating lately.

"It upset me," Draco whispered.

I sighed deeply. "Look Draco, I don't understand at all anything that has happened this past week."

"Me neither."

"I mean, we've hated each other for years, haven't we? Why should it all of a sudden matter whether or not we speak to each other?" I asked exasperated.

"So you don't want to talk to me, then?"

"No that's just it!" I yelled, but then I lowered my voice to a whisper. "I…I do want to talk to you."

Oh God, it's true

"I've been dying to talk to you all week, Harry, but I was afraid of what you would think if I did…I was afraid of what might happen."

"I wouldn't have minded if you spoke to me. I would probably been grateful for insults. I can't believe I'm saying this, though. All week I've been trying so hard to convince myself of just the opposite."

Draco laughed, "Me too."

For a while we just stood there in silence, trying to take in what had just been said.

"I'm not entirely sure I understand why this sudden change has occurred, though," I finally spoke, breaking the silence.

"Does it matter?"

"Maybe not," I confessed. "But what are we supposed to do about what we've just said? I mean…is it truly possible for Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter to be friends?"

"I wasn't exactly thinking we would be _friends."_

"Well then what…"

But I wasn't able to finish my sentence as my mouth was suddenly covered byDraco's.

Oh God!

I had spent all week analyzing and reanalyzing everything. I was convinced that there was a logical explanation for all the odd things that had happened. But as I finally stood there in the dark with Draco's warm lips firmly gripping my own, I figured it out.

-It didn't matter-

All that mattered was that Draco was kissing me. It was as though the whole week had been in anticipation for this moment. No, scratch that, my whole life had been waiting for this.

I'd been kissed before, sure, and frankly this probably wasn't the most technically spectacular kiss I'd ever had. But nothing could compare to how right this moment felt, how perfect, how satisfying, how _completing_. I know this sounds unbelievable and perhaps even cheesy, but I'm only telling you how I felt at that moment. It felt as though something had been missing my whole life. Something important, like a limb, and I had finally been reunited with it.

As I kissed Draco back I moved my arms around his waist, drawing him as close as possible until there was no space left between us. I felt Draco's arms in return, slide up my back, making there way delicately over my neck. His long fingers then began to intertwine themselves in my hair, all the while trying to pull my head even closer to his, though I think that would probably have been physically impossible.

Finally our lips parted, solely for want of breath. Our arms were still wrapped around each other as I looked up into his eyes. They were deep, cool silvery pools.

How could I have never noticed those eyes before?

In his eyes I saw that he was equally shocked as I was at what had just transpired. 

"How can you be so shocked? You were the one who kissed me."

"I've kissed lot's of people, Harry, and that was no kiss."

I was tempted to tell him that logically his statement made no sense, but in my heart I knew _exactly_ what he meant. 

"I…I know. I felt it too."

For some time we just stared at each other, speaking volumes with just our eyes until we came to a silent understanding. After a while Draco nodded his head, as in agreement to words I never spoke aloud. Words I didn't have to speak aloud. To show him that I knew what he meant, I kissed him again, first just letting my lips rest against his, happy to be that close to him. It was Draco who began hissing me deeply, as if he thought he could swallow me whole, as if he needed me to survive, like one needs air. I moved my hands from his waist up towards his head, as he had done earlier. I traced my hands along his jaw line, and then over his cheeks. I was mildly surprised to find that there were tears streaming down his face. But I did not have to mention them or ask about them to know why they were there. It was for the same reason that there were tears on my face.

Suddenly everything we had once known about the world had changed. All that now mattered was that we were together. But the fear that something or someone might force us apart was overwhelming. The truth was that there were simply too many factors against us. The history of antagonism between us amounted to nothing as far as we were concerned, we knew this without speaking the words. But we knew that there were very few people in the world who would accept us.

How can I bare to hide this from the world when I cannot bare to have one inch of space between us?

"Draco" I whispered between kisses, "I don't know if I'll be able to explain this to people, but I do know that I wont be able to hide it." I stopped kissing Draco and looked into his eyes, emphasizing the seriousness of what I just said and what all it implied. 

"I know." Draco returned my gaze with equal severity. "I'm not sure what's to be done about it, though. I mean how do we explain something like this? I'm not sure I fully understand it myself."

"Yeah, it's like, there just aren't any words to describe it. Whatever it is between us I can feel very strongly. I know it's there, but I just don't think I can describe it, can you?"

"Well, mainly it feels like a…need. For some reason I need you."

"That's what it is, isn't it? A need."

The theory sounded bizarre, but I knew that Draco was right. I needed to be near him. I needed his presence. I needed to know that he would continue to be there with me.

"It's as though…" I paused briefly to make certain I used the right words, "you are all of a sudden as vital a part of me as my breath or my heartbeat."

"I doubt it's so sudden, though. Somehow I think I've always needed you, I've just redirected that need. Just because I've spent so many years… being mean to you," I noticed Draco blush, "it doesn't mean that I didn't thrive off of you. I'm very sorry for how I acted, but you really were a lifeline for me. There were so many times I thought I would go mad, but you were always there to ground me. You were my focus, my constant. No matter how fucked up the world got around me, you were always the same, you were always there. I lived for the next moment I saw you, the next time I could insult you, the next time I could play against you. That's why I never left you alone. I'm not saying that I was in love with you, but I was obsessed with you all the same. I didn't realize any of this until just last week, though. It was _painful_ for me to ignore you completely, truly painful. It was as though I had nothing left, nothing to live for, no point. I couldn't believe it when Snape paired us up in potions. You know why I said we should probably not talk in public?"

I shook my head.

"I was honestly afraid that after a week of depriving myself of you, that being so close to you would finally break my resolve. I was honestly afraid that I might jump you in the middle of potions class."

"Well you practically did just that in the hallway after class."

"Yeah, I guess so." Draco laughed sheepishly. 

"I didn't mind. Ron of course thought you had attacked me. He kept asking if you had hurt me at all."

"Did I?" The concern in Draco's voice was very clear.

"No, you did manage to make me horny as hell, though."

I can't believe I'm saying this to Draco!

"Really? I never thought you'd go in for that kind of stuff!"

"Well, I guess we've all got out quirks. I've got a few more I might share with you some day." I raised one eyebrow suggestively.

"Oh God, slow down Harry. I am in no way prepared for dealing with how very horny you are in serious danger of making me."

"Sorry."

"No offence, Harry, but I don't want to rush anything too much. I'm not implying that I would regret it, just that, under the circumstances, I really want to do things in the right order. I want to be able to prove to people that I'm not just using you for sex. I know people will think that too, especially the Slytherins. But I what I feel for you is so much more than that."

"I know that Draco." 

"You know Harry, I really love the fact that beyond all laws of reason, I am comfortable saying things to you that I wouldn't otherwise be able to say to anyone. I mean, honesty isn't necessarily a Slytherin trait. I've been lying to people, even myself, for so many years now. It's become difficult to distinguish the truth from the fiction. But for some reason, I know I will always tell the truth to you. That night when you found me a week ago, I couldn't believe the things I told you. I normally would have lied and been defensive, but I wasn't."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For letting me see the real you, it means a lot to me."

"You're welcome."

I kissed Draco once lightly on the mouth.

"Draco," I said suddenly remembering something, "that morning, when you left the Griffendor tower, did you kiss me?"

"Well, yeah, why?"

"I thought, after you completely ignored me, that I had imagined it. I was really angry with myself about it, too. But, why did you do it? Kiss me and then ignore me?"

"Well I had actually already decided before we reached the door that I would have to ignore you. I assumed that we could never be seen as anything more than enemies. But I also knew that I could never go back to treating you as though I hated you. So the only option I saw was to cut off all contact with you. I kissed you because I honestly believed that would be the last contact with you ever. I had no idea at the time, however, just how impossible it would be for me to ignore you. I want you to know, Harry, that I've never lost my resolve before today. In the past I've always stuck to whatever I had decided to do, all the way to the end. Being so near you today in class, though, made me realize how totally I need you."

"There is no going back, is there?"

"Why, do you wish you could?"

"Oh God, no. I _do_ need you. I don't even want to imagine going back to the way things were, not for the whole world. But we do need to convince the rest of the world of this. We can't just walk into the Great Hall holding hands and expect that everyone to figure it out amongst themselves, can we?"

"No. Maybe I'm a little selfish, but I really wish we didn't have to tell anyone. I wish I could just keep you to myself for a while."

"That would involve a lot of hiding. I don't know if I'm talented enough to keep a secret this big from my friends. Although, they all seem to be keeping secrets from me. I only wish I were a better liar. I just know, though, that if I try to keep a secret this big from them, they will find out sooner rather than later. And besides, I don't think under the circumstances that you're cracked out to be any better at hiding this than I am. Remember, you practically jumped me today in front of all my friends? I think that for us to successfully hide this, we would have to stay far apart, and I know we don't want to do that. So I think the real question is whether we want everyone to find out when they come across us snogging or if we want to be able to warn them first."

"I wish we didn't have to talk about things like this. I wish we could just have a normal relationship."

"But we aren't normal, Draco, and we do have to talk about this. If this were just a fling we wouldn't have to worry about these sorts of things, but I don't think this is a passing faze, do you?"

"Oh God no! I… I can't bare to even think about not having you with me."

At that I simply _had_ to kiss him again.

"So how do you want people to find out?"

Draco paused before he spoke, clearly contemplating the question.

"I think we should shock everyone!"

"Draco this is serious!"

"So am I. I think tomorrow morning at breakfast we should walk into the Great Hall and make sure everyone knows about us. I think we should come in together, slightly late, and kiss so that the whole school sees us. Then we can part to our separate tables and make our explanations, or not if we're so inclined."

"You're crazy, you know that Draco."

"I know," Draco said smiling. "But I really don't care what people think about us, I want the whole school to know. And I honestly think that letting them see us snog would be a lot easier than getting in front of the school and say 'well guys, things are gonna be a little different from now on.' I mean it could seriously take forever for us to try to explain this. Showing them would just be so much easier."

"Okay, it's totally insane, but I will agree on one condition. I want you to be with me when I go tell Ron and Hermione."

"Anything you want."

"I cannot believe we are actually planning on doing this. Are you sure I'm worth it?"

"Worth my life," Draco said, then kissed me to emphasize his point. "I will die for you if I have to. I _know_ I will die without you. I may never be able to logically prove it to anyone else, or even to myself, but that won't make it any less true." Draco's eyes shone with such fierceness and intensity I knew what he said was true.

"You'll never leave me will you Draco?"

I meant it to be a rhetorical question, but Draco answered it anyway.

"I couldn't leave you even if I wanted to."

"Nor I you."

Draco leaned over the very short distance and kissed a tear from my cheek. I knew it was a tear he has kissed, for I tasted the salt on his lips when he then kissed my mouth.

I knew in my heart that this was where I was meant to be, side by side with Draco. If you had told me eight days before that I would in such a short time be feeling what I felt for Draco, I could not have believed you. But truly, as I stood there in Draco's arms, there was not a thing in the world that could talk me out of being more than willing to give up everything just to be with him. I could honestly think of nothing that I would be willing to keep if it meant giving up Draco. Not even my own life would be worth anything to me if I had to live it without Draco.

In a sense, it was absolutely terrifying. All of those emotions were entirely new to me. Even the intensity alone of my emotions was new to me. I'd never felt this strongly about anything. Not even my fears and my anger could compare. I suppose it was because I never had anything to live for. True I was very angry when I learned about my parents' murder, but I had never met them, as truly awful as that is to say. But what I mean is that I never learned what is was to love them really. True I did love Ron and Hermione, but in many ways they had been unable to be there for me as completely as I wished. But now I had someone who I knew would be there for me completely and by God now that I knew what that felt like, I sure as Hell wasn't about to give it up!

It occurred to me that this whole time Draco and I had not moved so much as a centimeter apart from each other. We had our chins rested on each other's shoulders and our arms wrapped around each other in a death grip.

"We can't stand here like this all night," I pointed out.

"U know I'll sound like a moron for saying this, but I don't want to let you go. I'm afraid you'll disappear."

I laughed. "You're right, you do sound like a moron, but I know what you mean. I'm terrified that if I leave here and go to bed, when I wake up it will all have been a dream."

"Do you dream about me, Harry?"

"Not usually, but I probably will tonight knowing me."

"That's so sweet." Draco kissed me lightly.

"You know that night you fell asleep in my bed? I had a rather erotic dream, it wasn't about you, though. But when I woke up, I was still holding you and I thought I was still dreaming."

"So was it before or after you officially woke up that you started feeling me up?"

"What!? You were supposed to be asleep!"

"No. Confession, I woke up long before you did."

"But I tried to wake you up and you just laid there."

"Well, I was so happy lying there that I just didn't want it to end, so I pretended to be asleep."

"You were happy waking up in my arms?"

"Oh, yeah! You have very gentle hands, you know. I really enjoyed the reenactment of your dream. You're blushing, Harry."

"I can't believe you were really awake the whole time. No wonder you were so upset when I yelled at you, though, I must have ruined a nearly perfect morning for you."

"Yes, as a matter of fact, you did."

"I'm sorry."

"Are you willing to make it up to me?"

"What , how?"

"I don't think you've ever seen my room, have you?"

"I thought you said you didn't want to rush into anything."

"I'm not suggesting anything. I just want to start off where this awful week began, as if it never happened. I want to wake up in your arms again, but when I do wake up, I want to open my eyes and see you laying next to me, and this time I want to kiss you, like I had wanted to last time."

"I think, that sounds like a wonderful idea," I said, kissing him. 

Pulling my invisibility cloak around the both of us, since we still could not bare to part even an inch, we set off to Draco's bedroom. As we went we would occasionally stop, as we found that kissing and walking at the same time was very difficult. 

Once in Draco's room we began to very timidly remove each other's robes. It was odd, because I knew I had seen Draco naked before, but this time it was a whole new experience. I was now allowed to admire him, and he was truly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, despite the scars. As I lowered the robes off of Draco's shoulders I began kissing each scar separately, as if I could heal them with my lips alone. 

"I wish I _could_ heal all of these scars," I said, looking up into Draco's eyes.

"You have healed me already, more than any science or medicine or magic ever could, just by being here with me." He pulled me up, drawing me into a deep kiss. "You are the greatest, most precious gift I've ever received, Harry Potter."

I returned his kiss and our lips never parted once as we made our way under the covers of Draco's bed. It was a gift to be able to lay there so peaceably with Draco in my arms. This time I let my hands run over his soft skin with the knowledge that I had every right to do so. Also, this time, the gesture was returned, as Draco explored my naked flesh for the first time. His hands deftly moving across my body with such care and adoration, as though he wished his fingertips to memorize ever square inch of me. As much as I could see that Draco could have been happy if he never stopped his actions, his eyelids soon began to droop and I allowed him for the second time ever to fall asleep in my arms. This time, though, there were no tears. Just before I drifted off to sleep myself, I leaned over and kissed his lips which were formed into a smile even as he slept. 


	5. Blushing Virgin Draco?

Notes from the author: I'm very sorry this has taken so long in coming, though hopefully I will get the next chapter out very quickly. I hope you like this chapter, though. It was very fun to write and it's very pleasantly slashy in a beautiful way. Not too smutty, though, that comes later.

Blushing Virgin Draco?

"Harry…Harry…Haaarrrry. Are you awake?"

Though I heard the sweet whispers it was the finger brushing lightly along the bridge of my nose that finally made me open my eyes. I will always remember the sight that greeted me as I woke that morning. Draco leaning over me with the most beautiful smile across his face. The warm morning sun played across the fine strands of silvery hair that fell over his forehead, making him appear to glow. He looked like an angel watching over me. I'd never seen him looking so beautiful, so happy, so carefree and innocent.

Had anyone ever seen this side of Draco before?

I reached my hand up to brush the hair away from his eyes which sparkled back at me. As I tucked the hair behind his ear I placed my hand around the back of his neck, drawing him down towards me, ridding us of all distance between our lips. Even as I kissed him I could feel him smiling. I marveled at the fact that every time I was with Draco it was an entirely new experience. He seemed to constantly change, constantly surprising and delighting me. I made a mental note that I really liked morning Draco.

"Have you been watching me sleep?" I asked, parting our lips only, not the space between us.

"Yes, you're beautiful when you sleep. Did you know that?"

"No I wasn't aware of that." I laughed. "Though oddly enough, I recall thinking that you were quite beautiful yourself when you slept."

"You were watching me sleep last night?"

"No, last week, when you were sleeping in my bed."

"You really thought that? Last week, you thought I was beautiful?"

"Yes, though I felt really guilty for thinking so. I mean, you were lying there so vulnerable with bruises all over and I was checking you out."

"Well I suppose I ought to be sort of upset that you would check me out in such a state, but honestly, I find it rather flattering. I mean, not too many people would consider me to be at all nice to look at with a black eye."

I placed my hand on his face, gently rubbing my thumb below his eye where last week it had been bruised and swollen.

"You know I actually cried," I said absently as if I only remembered it just then. "When I was healing you, I cried. I thought that it was awful that anyone would do anything to harm someone as beautiful as you. It's funny, I didn't think that much of it at the time. I mean it was just a passing thought, really. I just took it for granted that I found you beautiful, though I'd never thought that about any other boy. But somehow, it's just the most natural thing in the world for me to find you beautiful, as if it were something I always knew."

"I remember the first time I thought you were beautiful. We were eleven and you walked into Madame Maulkin's Dress Shop. I had no idea who you were at the time, but I remember thinking of you as the beautiful boy whose clothes were too big for him."

"Really? When we were eleven?"

"Yeah, isn't that crazy? When we were on the train and I learned who you were I was shocked that The-Boy-Who-Lived was really The-Beautiful-Boy-Whose-Clothes-Were-Too-Big."

"That's a really weird story, you know that don't you?"

"Okay, but no weirder than you crying over a few scars."

"Hmmm, you know it just occurred to me that we both have scars."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe we should start a club."

"All right, but you and I get to be the only members."

"You know I rather like your scar." I felt Draco run a finger along the jagged line of my scar, then firmly press his lips onto it.

"That kind of tickles! No one's ever touched my scar before, it feels weird."

"You don't mind do you? I'd understand completely if it made you uncomfortable."

"No, I don't mind _you_ touching it, though I might mind if it were someone else. You touching it makes it seem special, like an intimate gesture that's unique to you."

"Good," Draco said, kissing my scar again, "'cause I rather like kissing you there. And you know what's really funny? Last night when you kissed my scars, I really did like it. I didn't think I would, I've always been self conscious about them. You're actually the only other person to have seen me naked, I never wanted anyone to see my scars before now."

"Wow, that makes me rather special, then. Just think, I must be the luckiest person in the world to have been chosen to see the world's most beautiful boy's naked body!"

"Stop it, you're making me blush."

"No, I like it when you blush," I said, kissing his pink cheeks lightly , then his pink lips significantly deeper.

"Mmm, maybe I'll have to blush more often then if that's the reward I get."

"Do, 'cause I'm rather fond of Blushing Virgin Draco."

"Hey, who said anything about me being a virgin?"

"You did, silly. You said that I'm the only person you let see you naked."

"Well… I could have had sex with my clothes on!"

"Yes, but have you actually?"

"No," he said blushing again. "This whole truth telling thing really sucks, you know."

"Hey, I'm not forcing the truth out of you."

"Makes no difference, I don't think I could lie to you if I wanted to. It's very frustrating."

I just laughed and kissed him again, drawing him even closer, allowing him to share the pillow my head was on. We lay there, holding each other tight and grinning at each other like fools.

"Harry, I want you to know that I have honestly never been as happy as I am right now. You know I've always hated mornings, I'd always be grumpy and complain. Everyone knew to avoid me in the mornings. But waking up next to you makes me wish that it were always morning. God I sound like a dork, just listen to me! I blame you entirely, you know."

"That's all right, you make me feel like a dork too, so you're at least not alone."

"Well, I guess I'd rather be a dork with you any day than go on being cool all by myself."

"What!? I hope this isn't goodbye all together to Cool Draco! I was rather looking forward to having Cool Draco as a boyfriend."

"If you insist I can always bring Cool Draco out of the closet for special occasions."

"Oh God, coming out of the closet! Isn't that what were supposed to be doing today at breakfast?"

"You're right, I almost forgot, I can't believe it! What time is it?"

"Um…breakfast starts in ten minutes, but if we plan on arriving fashionably late we still have time to get dressed."

We both reluctantly got out of bed.

"Oh God you're gorgeous," I said nearly dumbstruck as I watched Draco walk naked across the room. A pale blush played across his cheeks as he glanced back at me, smiling shyly. I _did_ love making him blush. It was so unreal that I of all people could shatter Draco's usual confidant stature.

As reward for his blush I grabbed him and kissed him as I had earlier, once on each cheek, and then lingeringly on the mouth.

"You were blushing again," I explained.

"Well you had better stop making me because I _cannot_ go front of the whole school as Blushing Virgin Draco! So let me go get dressed."

"All right, then, for the sake of Smolderingly Sexy Draco. Off you go then," I said, teasingly as I slapped him on the bottom. His blush only increased in intensity, but I chose not to mention it for the sake of his dignity, which I feared might shatter all together if I pushed him too far. Secretly, though, I relished once again in the fact that I could affect Draco Malfoy to such a degree. I tried not to get a big head about it, but it was frightfully difficult. Instead I tried to focus on the task of getting dressed.

"Oh! I hadn't thought about it, but unless I get back to my dorm room I'm going to have to go out there in my school robes from yesterday. Do you mind awfully if I go get a change of clothes?"

"Well… I guess not, but…wait! Can I dress you please?"

"I can't wear your clothes."

"Why not, silly? We're the same size and I have an outfit that will look perfect on you. Besides I left wearing _your_ clothes last time."

"Hey, how'd you know that, didn't my transfiguration work properly on the crest?"

"Oh yeah, it's still working as far as I know, it's just that they smell like _you_."

"Funny, I had never thought of that. What do I smell like, by the way?"

"I don't know, you smell like…" he came up and buried his nose in my neck, inhaling deeply "You just smell like you," he finally decreed, smiling up at me. "You don't mind if I keep them do you? They're my favorite."

"No I don't mind, you can keep them in exchange for one everyday set of clothing for me."

"Thanks," he said, kissing me lightly before retreating into the closet.

"Just don't expect me to wear anything too over the top," I warned.

  
"I can't believe you don't trust me," Draco pretended to sound hurt.

"Yeah, well last time I let someone dress me I got shoved into leather pants and a glitter covered shirt."

A burst of laughter came from the closet.

"Who did that to you?"

"Seamus Finnigan."

"Oh, well that crazy leprechaun probably wrote the book on being a flamer."

"What! Seamus is gay? How did you know that?"

Draco stuck a very shocked head out of the closet and looked at me as if I'd gone completely barking mad.

"You _didn't_ know? What, do you live under a rock or something?"

"Okay, so I don't pay that much attention to who my former room mates are sleeping with," I said in my own pathetic defense. "I still want to know how you know about Seamus, though."

"Well, besides the fact that he practically has flamer tattooed across his forehead, I know for quite a few reasons. For one, he used to be seeing my former room mate, Blaize. For two he's tried on numerous occasions to get into _my_ pants. And for three, from what I understand, he's practically wetting himself over your friend Weasley."

"What!? You don't mean that…" but I didn't get any further with that discussion because at that moment Draco came out of the closet fully dressed and holding a set of clothes for me.

"What were you going to say," Draco asked casually.

I tried to remember what we had just been talking about, but the sight of Draco totally made me loose my focus. It made no sense to me at all, really, I mean I had seen him _naked_ before, but now Draco made me blush. He was wearing a pair of grey pinstripe trousers that clung snugly to his hips and a black tight fitting shirt. It wasn't so much the outfit, but Draco _in_ the outfit. It was amazing to see him in smoldering sexy mode. As much as I truly did adore Blushing Virgin Draco, _this_ was where he was truly in his element. This Draco took my breath away and made me wonder how I got to be so lucky.

"Cat got your tongue, Harry?" he asked with his trademark smirk, but then he gave me a reassuring kiss, for which I was very glad. Being the boyfriend of Smolderingly Sexy Draco was going to take some getting used to. 

"Here, I picked out an outfit for you, I thought you'd probably feel more comfortable in this than some of my other clothes."

"Jeans and a white T-shirt?" I asked skeptically . "I would have expected something a tad more stylish coming from your closet. I didn't even think you owned jeans."

"They have their purpose, but if you like, I do own leather pants."

"No!…Thank you, the jeans are fine," I said slipping into them. "Um… I'm not sure these really fit." I had the clothes on and was looking at myself in the mirror, I got them on all right, but they fit so snugly that they really didn't leave anything up to the imagination.

"They look all right to me," Draco said, eyeing me up and down with a grin.

"You want me to go in front of all the school wearing this?"

"Oh yeah! If I'm going to show you off to the whole school I want to show you off at your very best and believe me, you look hot!"

"Whatever," I said shaking my head in disbelief.

"Well, come on then, we don't want to miss breakfast all together," he said slipping his hand into my back pocket and leading me to the door.

"Shouldn't I put on my invisibility cloak if I'm going to go through the Slytherin commons room?"

"Not for what we're doing today, Baby-Cakes!" Draco playfully shoved me out of the door.

"You know," I said as we made our way to the Great Hall, "I find it truly amazing that you can be both Blushing Virgin Draco and Exhibitionist Draco."

"I don't think that wanting to prove my feelings for you exactly makes me and exhibitionist, and it's not like I'm going in front of the school naked, so I don't see what Blushing Virgin Draco has to do with it at all."

"So you're saying that you just have a problem with people seeing you naked?"

Draco said nothing to this, but gave me a mock glare instead. I could see that he was blushing, though. It wasn't until that point that I realized that Draco really _did_ have issues about being seen naked. I counted myself truly blessed that Draco felt I was worthy of such a gift. I silently vowed not to tease him about it again. To seal my vow I leaned over and kissed him.

"Thank you," he whispered into my mouth and kissed me back.

"For what?"

"For being you, for being here with me, for understanding me when I need you to, for being willing to go through what we're about to do."

"Being here by your side is the easy part, right now it's not being by your side that worries me. I know that we've been together for such a short amount of time, but I honestly feel as if up to this point in my life I've been living in agony, just because you weren't there next to me. Being next to you makes me feel as though I truly belong somewhere. I've never felt like that before. My whole life I've been searching for someone to connect to, some sort of family that I knew would always be there for me. I really feel as though you are exactly what I've been looking for this whole time."

"I know what you mean, except that I never bothered searching. I just took it for granted that I would never feel anything like this, I didn't even know it was possible."

"We sound like two pathetic lonely boys, don't we?"

"Not lonely anymore, though," Draco said seriously, taking hold of my head in between his two hands. "I _swear_ that I will always be there for you, Harry. There is not a being in hell that could drag me from your side, not even Voldermort himself could keep me away from you."

"That's really saying something, but I swear to the same with all my heart. You will forevermore be my reason for living and I swear I will hold to you as I would hold to my own life." The two of us sealed our oaths with a kiss. "I feel as though there's nothing I couldn't do as long as you were by my side."

"Good, 'cause here we are." He pointed at the entrance to the Great Hall. "Are you ready?"

I nodded. "For anything. I'm so crazy about you I think I would consent to having sex on the head table if you asked me to right now."

"Don't worry about that, I have no intentions of loosing my virginity in front of the Headmaster. All I ask is a kiss."

"It sounds so simple now. Last night I thought I'd be more nervous," I said, kissing him.

"Well right now we're standing alone in the corridor. We do actually have to do that standing in front of the whole school."

"Okay, then let's go." 

I pushed the door open so that we could both pass through into the Great Hall. I felt Draco's arm link around my waist and I had barely a second to look out across the school before Draco pulled me tight across his body. At first he just smiled at me. It was the most beautiful adoration-filled smile I'm sure anyone had ever seen. A smile which I couldn't help but more than adequately reciprocate as I reached up to cup Draco's face with my hand. We paused a while like that, but then in an split second our lips met in our most searing, passionate kiss yet. 

I think it was the fact that this kiss meant so much that made it so different. That we could and would kiss in front of the entire school seemed to be our final test, the proof that our words truly meant something. I soon forgot about everything save the feel of Draco against me. I did not notice the Gryffendor girl scream when his tongue brushed over my lips and slipped into my mouth. I did not hear the Slytherin boy cry out "Holy Fuck!" when Draco grabbed my ass, pulling me even closer. I did not notice the whole school go into uproar when I started rubbing my hips up against Draco, making him and I moan at the delicious friction. All I noticed was lips, tongues, fingers, arms, heat, passion, and intensity. All I noticed was Draco, nothing else mattered at that moment. 

When we finally stopped kissing, our hearts racing, our breathing heavy, we simply smiled at each other exultantly with a rush of euphoria we had never known before.

"I love you _so_ much," Draco whispered intensely.

I felt as though my heart would burst. Draco really did love me. It had been implied of course, but the fact that he now actually voiced the sentiment and in front of all these people was almost overwhelming. 

"And I love you," I said having to fight away the pressing urge to cry. I could see by the look on Draco's face that he was that close to tears as well. "You'd better tell a joke quick. Snogging in front of the school is one thing, but letting them see us cry is something completely different."

It was at that moment that our thoughts finally returned to the rest of the school. What seemed odd at this point, though, was the complete silence that greeted us. We turned our faces away from each other and the sight that greeted us was the entire school staring open mouthed at us.

"What!?" Draco scoffed in full Slytherin mode. "You've never seen two guys kiss before?"

I laughed, finally I got one of Draco's jokes! No one else laughed, though.

"Hmm, looks like no one's got a sense of humor today," I pointed out. "Who cares about them, though. Draco, would you care to join me for breakfast?"

"I'd love to, Harry," he said, sliding his hand into mine allowing me to lead him.

As we headed towards the Gryffendor table not an eye left us. The expressions all varied, of course. Some looked as though they had murderous intentions for one or another of us. Others looked as though they were sure we were escapees from St. Mungo's insanity ward. The Huffelpuffs for the most part all looked completely scandalized. Every once in a while there was a truly amused expression. These were all to be expected. What was not expected, though, was seeing Hermione looking _absolutely_ overjoyed. Ron, of course, looked murderous.

"Sorry for being so late, is it all right if we join you?"

"Yes" and "no" were spoken in unison.

"Hmm, well how about Draco and I just go ahead and sit here anyway, 'cause I'm starving. Draco?" I said, pulling up a chair for him.

"Thank you Harry" Draco took the proffered chair, sitting down next to a bewildered Nevil Longbottom. I then proceeded to sit between Draco and a furious Ron.

"I think," spat Ron, "that you had either explain yourself or you and that piece of filth can leave."

I took a deep breath.

Yep, this is definitely the hard part

I felt Draco give my hand a comforting squeeze under the table. I was grateful for the encouragement.

"I will understand, Ron, If you cannot forgive Draco for his past actions. I do expect you, however, to accept the fact that I have. I would hope furthermore that you could try to understand that Draco makes me happy. He and I have an understanding. The feelings he and I share for each other are by no means new today, but they are newly discovered. I love him, Ron, very deeply, and he loves me. Neither of us has the least intentions of leaving the other, ever." I emphasized the last word in reference to the oaths Draco and I had just sworn to in the corridor.

Even after I finished talking Ron remained deathly quiet, simply glaring.

"Can you say something, please Ron?"

"I think," Ron said in a surprisingly calm voice, "that I'm going to kill myself." Having said that Ron stood up sharply and walked out of the Great Hall. For the first time since we entered, all the eyes were off of Draco and I as they all watched Ron leave. No one moved to go after him, however. 

After a moment of continued silence Seamus looked around and said, "I think I'll just go make sure that he doesn't actually kill himself, excuse me." He got up and calmly walked over to the door at which point he set off at a run to find Ron. 

At that point the silence which had for so long settled on the Great Hall finally dissipated as every one began animatedly discussing the scene they had just witnessed. 

"He isn't really going to try and kill himself because of us is he?" Draco whispered in my ear with a hint of concern.

"No, he's probably just trying to get attention," Hermione answered, having heard the question and shifted into the seat left by Ron. "He threatened to do the same thing when I refused to go out with him. By the way, I'm very glad that you two finally figured it out."

"Excuse me?" Draco said, leaning around me to look Hermione in the face. "Figured what out exactly?"

"Well I very well may have been among the very few people to notice, but both of you have been mooning all week," she said matter-of-factly. 

"All right, I have two things to say to that. One: I do not moon. And two: you _knew_?"

"Yes, Draco (I can call you that can't I?) you do moon (in your own special way albeit) and yes I did know. That is to say that I had my very strong suspicions which were increased when Harry went to meet you last night and never came back and which were confirmed just now by your brilliant full frontal snogging and ass grabbing display."

"So you're all right with the fact that your best friend is in love with a Slytherin?"

Hermione just gave us a odd grin and said, "love has been found in far stranger places."

The rest of breakfast passed quite well once Ron left and any odd glances or comments we received were strictly ignored. Very little conversation was actually held, mostly because my fellow Gryffendors were too embarrassed to ask Draco and I what was truly on their minds. Draco played his part in whatever conversation was sent our way, though. I could tell that deep down inside he would have preferred to be off somewhere alone with me, in truth it was what I wanted as well. The whole point of our actions that morning, however, were that if Draco and I were as truly serious about each other as we claimed, we had to find a way of existing in public with each other. It wasn't enough that we accepted each other, the rest of the world had to accept us as well. 

For the most part, though, Draco and I could care less where we were or what was going on around us. We had just declared our love for each other in front of the whole school and there wasn't a thing in the world that could bring us down from that high. If Voldermort appeared in front of us I'm pretty sure we would have laughed in his face and told him sod off. We felt as though we were an unstoppable force. We were in love and that was that, heaven help anyone who tried to get in our way. 


	6. Deadly Secrets

AN: I know that everyone wants me to continue "A Very Interesting Christmas Break" and I fully intend to, but after months of being stuck with where to go in this story, it finally hit me this morning, and I had to write it all down. I may keep writing this for a little while before I get back to "Christmas Break" but don't worry, I will continue that one as well.

Deadly Secrets

After having come out in front of the whole school like we did, I have to admit that Draco and I were apprehensive to say the least. Breakfast had passed with little altercation, but we honestly didn't know if that was due to shock or not. The following few days, though, Draco and I remained inseparable. We often heard whispers that followed us around in the hallways as we walked hand in hand between classes. The Slytherins often appeared as a threat to us, whether or not they openly protested against us. Draco's flinches when we passed certain of his housemates were subtle, but I noticed them nonetheless. He tended to strengthen his grip on my hand when under the glare of any Slytherin. I was still surprised by this. Though we had made vows to each other, part of me still suspected that Draco would shun me in order to save his own pride. On the contrary, Draco seemed to cleave to me even more when faced with adversary. It remained as we originally stated, being together made us feel like we could overcome anything that came our way. 

The first and last time that Draco and I had encountered any serious threat from a schoolmate was three days after we came out. Up till that point, Draco and I had been avoiding others a fair bit. We would openly be affectionate in public, but more often than not, we would hide ourselves away either in our rooms or in any secluded spot we could. I was stunned one night when Draco pulled me into the Slytherin commons room and sat me down on one of the couches next to him. We had planned to do homework together and I had assumed that we would do it in his room, not right in the midst of almost all the Slytherins. The disbelief of Draco's gall was apparent on his housemates faces. I tried not to show my fear and scooted even closed to Draco. I suspected a mass attack involving the lynching of both Draco and I. Only of Draco's housemates approached us, though, a sixth year who, despite being a year beneath us, was much larger, and I suspected older. 

"Draco," the boy spat with disgust, "I knew you were a fucking traitor but I figured there were limits to how far you would go to bring disgrace to your name and house. Or are you even still calling yourself a Malfoy? Have you even told your father about your little girlfriend? I'm quite sure he'd disown you in a heartbeat. That is…if he hasn't done so already. Last I heard, your daddy dearest was looking for a new heir. I don't blame him in the least. I can't imagine that a faggot would make a very good heir. That should be reason enough, I'd wager, even if it weren't for the fact that you're nothing better than a pathetic whelp who'd sell his father's secrets to save his own neck. I don't wonder that he'd probably make me his heir as reward if I managed to off you for him. I think I may go ahead and find out."

Draco said nothing, but I felt his grip on my hand tighten. When I glanced over at him, though, I realized that it was more a result of his anger than him searching for support. I noticed his other hand reaching for his wand and I pulled out mine as well.

Before anything could happen, though, Snape came storming up to the three of us, fuming with anger. My heart sank when I realized what this might look like. I was pointing my wand straight at the Slytherin boy and neither Draco nor he had taken their wands out yet. I cringed in anticipation of the ensuing tirade from the head of Slytherin House. When it came I was stunned to realize that for once, it was not directed at me. 

"Mr Malfoy," Snape roared, "I have told you before that this sort of behavior is not to be tolerated. Come with me this instant. We shall see what the Headmaster thinks of all this."

I impulsively leaned into Draco, partially shielding him with my body, but I soon realized that my actions were needless. Snape had already grabbed the other boy by his arm and was dragging him away, leaving Draco and myself long forgotten. I was about to inquire just what had happened, when Draco jumped up from the couch, pulling me with him as he ran out of the commons room and towards his bedroom. Once in his room, he finally let go of my hand and threw himself down on the bed. 

I was completely stunned and at a loss for words. It suddenly occurred to me how little I knew about Draco. I had seen him, beaten and bloodied by his father's hand, but I had never asked why he had been beaten. I just had assumed that his father was an asshole, like Dudely was. I had undergone years of beatings from him, having done nothing to deserve it; it didn't occur to me that there was more to the story than what Draco had told me. 

I knelt down on the bed next to Draco and saw that he was crying. When I placed my hand on the side of his face and brushed his tears with my thumb, he flinched a little, but otherwise permitted the touch.

"Draco….my love, do you want to talk about it?" was all I spoke

Draco looked up at me and moved so that his head was in my lap. I wanted for him to open up to me, but I would never force his confidence, so I sat patiently waiting, gently brushing my fingers through his hair. It seemed like we sat there for hours, with Draco silently sobbing in my lap. Though we were in the dungeon, there were high windows up on the walls that let me know that it had gotten dark on us. When I looked down at Draco I realized that he had fallen asleep. I was contemplating whether I should leave him to sleep or not when I knock came at the door. I was too shocked to be able to answer, but the door opened anyway and Professor Snape entered.

My first reaction was to make excuses for why I should be in the Slytherin dorms at this time of night, for it was definitely past curfew. Snape silenced me with a curt wave of his hand, making it clear that his interest lay in the boy asleep in my lap.

"Is he all right?" he asked with uncommon gentleness.

"I'm not sure, I tried to ask him about it, but he hasn't spoken a word. He's been crying for what seems like hours and he only just fell asleep." 

"You do know of what happened between him and his father?"

"I…I know that his father beat him. A week and a half ago I healed him myself, but…he never told me exactly what had happened."

Snape sighed. "I don't know that he'll want me to be telling you this, but you ought to know. Part of the success in Voldemort's downfall was due to information we received from Draco. The general theory among a large amount of the Dark Lord's supporters is that Draco sold his fathers secrets in exchange for his own immunity. When word of this got out, Draco was despised by wizards on both sides of the battle. Naturally, the Dark Wizards wanted his head on a stake as the information he gave not only resulted in Voldemort's ruin, but in the death and imprisonment of many of his followers. That boy who threatened Draco today is Draco's cousin, Octavius Malfoy. He was entirely sincere in his threat to Draco. Octavius' father is currently in Azkaban for life due to the information received from Draco. So far the only reason that Draco's own father hasn't killed him is the fact that he is his only heir. If word does get to Lucius Malfoy that Draco is gay then the threat to his life will be even greater and he will no doubt be looking for a replacement heir, most likely Octavius."

I was overwhelmed by what Snape had told me already, yet I found myself asking for even more information.

"You said that Draco was despised by both sides. Why would the light side despise him if his information helped our success?"

"Not everyone believes that Draco is entirely innocent. There are those who even now believe that he should be sent to Azkaban. He requested immunity and was granted it by Dumbledore, but most believed that he would defect and return to the Dark Lord's side just as easily as he turned to ours. "

"They can't send him to Azkaban! I'd sooner die then let them take him. And as for the fear that he would defect, Draco would never do that! I've seen what he's suffered at his father's hand; there's no way he'd return to that sort of abuse!"

Snape smiled strangely down at me. "I wasn't entirely sure at Draco's wisdom in choosing you as a partner, Harry Potter; the threat on his life no doubt has doubled because of it, from both sides. I think, though, that my apprehension was unfounded. There are very few people left in the world who see any good in Draco Malfoy, from either Gryffindor or Slytherin. He is doubly fortunate in finding not only one of the few young men with faith in him, yet also perhaps the only young man pigheaded enough to believe that he can protect his lover from angry foes on both sides of an unfortunate war."

Snape turned to leave, but before he managed to slip out I called out after him.

"Professor, what is going to happen to that boy…Draco's cousin?"

"I had him expelled for a blatant threat on a classmate's life. If the only help I can offer Draco is to ensure his safety while in his own dorms, then I will do that much. I will leave the rest to you." With that said, Snape, much to my astonishment, bid Draco and myself goodnight.

Once again alone with Draco, I leaned down to place a kiss on his forehead. I was very much surprised, though, to find him looking up at me.

"Draco, how long have you been awake?"

"Through the whole conversation. You haven't really mastered the art of whispering, you know."

"You…you aren't upset are you? That Snape told me those things?"

"No, I'm glad you know. I was afraid of telling you myself, though. I thought you might assume that I was taking advantage of you…using you for protection or proof that I wouldn't defect or something."

"I'd never think that of you. Besides, the war is over, my love. There's nothing to defect from. But if it's all right with you, I think I'll go on protecting you anyway. Is there really no one in Slytherin you can trust?"

"No, there's still those who never joined the Dark side. Probably more than people realize. It sometimes makes no difference how many Slytherins are on your side, though, cause they generally are too pissed scared to admit it. They all know that there are those who want me dead and they probably all figure that standing up for me will get them killed as well."

"Well who needs them anyway. I'll always stand up for you. And more likely than not I'll send all of your foes home in a matchbox."

"Harry, have I told you that I love you?"

"Not in the past three hours, no."

"I love you."

I answered with a single kiss on his lips.

"Do you love me?"

I smiled down at him. "You know I love you, more than anything, more than anyone."

"I want to hear you say it."

"I love you, Draco."

"Make love to me, please."

"Are you sure? I thought you wanted to wait."

"I _have_ waited, three whole days. Every day felt like a year. And every second I wait now feels like an eternity."

"You always have had a way of exaggerating things, haven't you?"

"You don't believe me? I swear I'll _die_ if you don't make love to me!" He spoke melodramatically, with the back of his hand across his forehead as if he were swooning. 

I laughed as he had intended to make me do, but at the same time I recognized the seriousness behind his actions. I could see that he was afraid that I didn't want him.

"I think, Draco, that I'll just have to make love to you, to save both our lives."

I saw relief flood across his face in the split second before he pulled me down on top of him, capturing my mouth in his. Despite the desperation I know we both felt, our movements never became rushed. We removed each other's clothes with slow, deliberate precision. Our bodies moved against each other with the ease and grace usually only allowed to long time practiced lovers. No one could say that we two did not belong together. Our desperation was shown in the perfection that we created in our love making. Draco came, whispering my name over and over as I spilled my seed deep within him. Even after we came, we could not part. Having once joined, we could not bear to be separated. We lay in each other's arms, myself still buried inside my lover, until we fell asleep.


	7. An Alliance Formed

It was still dark when I woke early the next morning. Beneath me, Draco slept on, with his arms and legs wrapped around me. I began to lightly kiss his face, hoping not to wake him. When he did wake, however, it didn't take very long for me to realize that it wasn't necessarily my kisses that had woken him. Throughout the night we had somehow managed not to move at all and I found that I was still buried within him. It was my cock that woke him, as it had begun to expand up further inside him as I became increasingly aroused by the feel of his flesh beneath my skin and my lips.

A gasp from Draco alerted me to the fact that he had woken.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize we were still...connected," I muttered as I began to pull out of him.

"No, no, please stay there... please." 

Moans like whispers came from Draco's throat as Draco and I rocked slowly together in a sleepy, unhurried fashion. It seemed the most perfect way to wake up, completely surrounded by Draco. In the darkness, with his arms and legs wrapped around me and with myself deep within him, and the sleepy state I was in, I honestly felt as though I didn't know where I ended and he began.

When I felt myself near my climax I reached my hand between us to help Draco along. I didn't think that at the slow pace we were going at that he could be able to come untouched, and I wanted the two of us to come together. I tried not to let myself release until I felt the splash of Draco's semen against my chest, then I filled Draco with my own, so he and I could ride the waves of our orgasm together.

"Mmm.... I love you," Draco whispered into my neck.

I whispered the same as I pulled out and knelt beside him. I realized with a silent laugh that Draco was already falling back to sleep, exhausted from our pre-dawn exertions. 

As I watched Draco sleeping, looking so vulnerable as he curled towards me, searching for my warmth, I could not help but think over what I had learned from Snape the night before concerning my lover. I knew what it was like for people to want me dead, but I couldn't comprehend what it must be like for me own family and housemates to wish that on me. 

- _But they cannot possibly all want him dead, can they?_ - I pondered to myself.

I looked down at Draco's face as he slept; he looked like a child. I knew that, like myself, that was far from the truth. Fearing for one's life makes one grow up very quickly. 

A thought suddenly occurred to me, though. Draco can't possibly be wanted dead by everyone; he had to have some friends who were still loyal to him. How could the whole house be so corrupt? I simply couldn't believe it.

I cast a cleaning spell on him before carefully placing a kiss on his lips and pulling the blanket up to his chin.

"I'll be back shortly," I whispered, just in case he was awake.

I quickly threw my clothes back on and slipped my wand into my sleeve. I hoped to be able to trust the Slytherins, but only a fool would trust a stranger with his life.

Slipping out of Draco's room, I made my way towards the Seventh year dormitories. Looking around I could see five beds. Judging by the volume of the snoring I guessed that the two beds on the far right belonged to Crabbe and Goyle. The initials on their trunks confirmed my suspicion. I decided that I'd try talking to Goyle; he always seemed like he was slightly smarter than Crabbe.

Pushing back the curtains I found that he was quite asleep.

"Goyle, wake up."

His confusion at being woken up before six in the morning by me was clearly marked on his face.

"I need to talk to you."

He just stared at me as if I were the tooth Fairy come to knock his front teeth out. 

"Are you actually awake?"

He nodded slowly, up and down.

"It's about Draco, Goyle. I need to know if you will stand by him. Is it all right if we talk in private?"

The snores in the other beds were becoming less steady and I wasn't prepared to deal with a whole room of potentially non morning Slytherins.

Goyle still seemed only slightly less confused, but he managed to get out of bed and throw his dressing gown on.

"Come on, follow me," he grunted.

Surprised by the ounce of civility I received so far from him, I followed him as he led me down the hall and into a shower room.

"This is the first year's showers. We won't be interrupted here; they never wash themselves. So what is this about?"

For some time I completely forgot myself and could only stare at Goyle, who had just spoken more words strung in a row than I remembered him speaking our entire time at Hogwarts so far. 

"Well as I said it's about Draco. I assume you are aware of the circumstances surrounding him and his father?"

"Sure. Most of the Slytherins know as far as I'm aware."

"Well I need to know if you're willing to stand by him or if you'd just as soon stab him in the back."

"Christ, Potter. I may be a Slytherin, but I'd never stab Draco in the back. Sure there are quite a few who would, but those of us who stood by him in first year stand by him now."

"Do you swear?"

"Yes, I swear. I happen to respect Draco for what he did, so do a lot of us. His father's no better than a piece of shit. Turning his back on him even when he knew it meant at the very least loosing his inheritance was the bravest thing Draco ever did. I'm not saying that everyone thinks that way. You were clever to want to talk to me in private; there are at least two guys in the room back there who wouldn't think twice about betraying Draco. I'm not sure about Zabini, though. He didn't take sides during the war, but he's the type who would sell his own mother for a new pair of shoes."

"What about Crabbe?"

"Vince? He's cool. Look, if it would help I can give you a list of people you can definitely trust."

"My God, that would be awesome."

"How about you and Draco sit with Vince and I at Breakfast and I can point out those I know will support Draco. There's actually a lot of talking that goes on behind his back. There are very few, including myself, who've been willing to openly stand up for Draco. Most people are honest with me, though, when I get them away from the crowd."

"Goyle, I never thought I'd have an opportunity to say this in my life, but I'm glad we had this conversation."

"Sure thing, and call me Greg. And by the way, I'm glad you two finally figured it out. Draco had been mooning something fierce recently."

"Don't let him hear you say that. By the way, that other day, when Draco knocked you out in potions, what did you say to him?"

"Just that," Goyle said with a laugh. "I accused him of mooning."

"Heh, I'd be shocked by his behavior, but as I recall, I was a right proper asshole to Hermione when she accused me of being in love."

"Well, as long as you two finally got together. But if you break up with him, I'm breaking your neck. A lovesick Draco is hard enough to deal with; I don't want to see him heartbroken."

"Don't worry, Greg, I'd sooner kill myself."

Walking away from that conversation I have to say I was completely stunned. I couldn't believe that Goyle could be such a lucid, intelligent person. But then again, I had never known that Draco Malfoy would be the love of my life. 

As I entered Draco's room, I assumed he was still asleep, so I slipped out of my clothes as quietly as I could and sneaked back into bed beside him.

"Where were you?" he asked as soon as I slipped my arm around him.

"I was having a conversation with your friend Goyle."

"What? Why? Since when are you friends with him?"

"Since now. He's been talking to a few people, so this morning at breakfast, he's going to point out who we can consider our friends and who we should steer clear of."

"You're going to eat breakfast at the Slytherin table?" Draco asked, turning around in my arms to look me in the eye.

"Yes, with you and Greg and 'Vince.'"

Draco snickered. "I don't even call them Greg and Vince. Since when are you on _nickname_ basis with them?" 

"Oh, well I don't really know about Crabbe, but Goyle told me to call him Greg. What do you call them?"

"Gregory and Vincent, those are their names," Draco answered with a shrug.

"Well, I'm glad you don't call me Harold, that's all I can say."

"Harold? Yes I guess it would be, wouldn't it? I don't see you as a Harold. I don't know, I've always had a bit of a prejudice against nicknames. I hate it when people call me 'Drake' or even worse, 'Drakey.'" 

"Well as long as you promise never to call me Harold, I'll always just call you Draco."

"Deal. I still don't really get why you went to talk to Gregory, though."

"I told you, he's going to be our intermediary. The first rule of being wanted dead is to find out who's on your side and who's not. So he's going to help us in that department. He evidently has connections."

"Gregory is going to help us? I'm surprised he'd even be willing to talk to me after how I've treated him recently."

"He seems to have gotten over it. I was just telling him that I had also been pretty mean to Hermione when she accused me of being in love."

"Oh my God, he didn't tell you that, did he? What kind of loyalty is that?"

"The best kind, from what I can see. Any friend who can forgive you for knocking him unconscious just because he accused you of mooning is a friend you should keep. He told me, by the way, that if I break up with you, he's breaking my neck."

"Shit. That's loyalty, I guess."

"Yep. That's the kind of guy you definitely want on your side."

"Are we done talking about Gregory, then?"

"Well, yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Cause we still have plenty of time before we need to get out of bed," Draco responded with a lascivious grin as he rolled over on top of me. "And I thought it might be fun to have sex now that I'm fully awake. As much as I really loved waking up that way." 

"Yeah, and maybe you'll stay awake this time."

"That is entirely unfair," Draco said with a pout. "I stayed awake for the sex part."

"And what do I have to do to keep you awake the rest of the day when we're not having sex?"

"I don't know, maybe you'll just have to make it more interesting."

"What do you mean? Like this?" I asked as I grabbed hold of his slender hips and pulled him up towards me, forcing him to sit up straddling my chest. Draco soon got the idea and moved even closer so that I could wrap my mouth around his dick.

"Mmm, yes. I think that I could manage to stay awake as long as there was more of this."

In a flash of considerable agility, Draco twisted his body around to be facing the other direction and took me into his mouth as well. Our muffled moaning was all that could be heard coming from the room for quite some time.

* * *

Breakfast was an interesting affair. I could definitely see why Draco had spent so many years flanked on either side by Greg and Vince. It was a very comfortable place to be. If anyone even looked at us funny, they would crack their knuckles and the perpetrator would cringe in fear. 

Greg spent most of the morning discretely pointing out those we could trust and even more discretely pointing out those we couldn't. Quite often, it was quite surprising. I'd thought, for example, that Pansy Parkinson would have been bitterly resentful towards Draco for not dating her, but she was evidently quite loyal to him.

"Well, they never were an item. I mean, it would have helped if at least one of them fancied the opposite sex."

"You're shitting me?"

"No, Pansy's a total dyke. I always thought it was kind of obvious."

"But she was always hanging all over the guys. I was sure she was straight."

"So you never noticed that all the guys she hung out with were gay? She's kept away from the straight guys like the plague. Vince once had to stay in the infirmary for three days after he tried to hit on her. But she's always had a soft spot for Draco. I think they might be second cousins or something."

Those who Greg told us to stay away from were sometimes even more surprising.

"That little kid?"

"Yeah, seriously, stay away from him."

"He looks like a first year."

"He is a first year. His father and mother both got sent to Azkaban because of Draco and both received the Dementor's kiss just last week."

"Poor kid."

"Don't feel sorry him. His parents were psychotic. They _ate_ Muggles."

"But that doesn't necessarily mean that he's messed up too. I mean look at Draco's father. He's totally deranged, but there's nothing wrong with Draco."

"Just trust me, Harry, this kid is messed up; you don't want to cross his path."

There seemed to be an awful lot of kids who's parents ended up in Azkaban because of Draco. Not all of them held it against Draco, though.

"Some of these kids are just like Draco and have been beaten for years; they're glad to see their fathers gone. I'm sure I'm glad."

"Your father's in Azkaban too?"

"Yeah. I hope he gets the Dementor's kiss, too. The bastard deserves it."

"Did he beat you?"

"No, my mom."

Greg didn't seem to have anything left to say on that topic, though. Despite all I had heard, there was one thing that kept bugging me. I didn't understand why it was that there were so many of these kid's parents sent to Azkaban when Draco's own father was still free. I didn't think Greg was the right person to ask that, though. Nor did breakfast seem the right place to ask. I made a mental note to ask Draco at a better time.

Halfway through breakfast, Draco nudged me and pointed towards the entrance. Ron had just come down. He looked like complete shit and his eyes were clearly red from crying and most likely lack of sleep. I saw both Hermione and Seamus try to get his attention, but he ignored them both, sitting at the far end of the table by himself. He hadn't talked to me at all since Draco and I came out and I now wasn't sure if he had talked to anyone at all.

"I'm not sure whether I should feel sorry for him or pissed at him," Draco whispered in my ear.

In response I sent a queried look at Draco.

"I mean, I know he's your friend and all, but I think that he's being a complete ass hole. Sure it looks like he's honestly upset, but how much of his pain is self inflicted? He doesn't have to stay mad at you. He's doing that by choice."

"I guess it came as a double shock to him. He's still upset about Hermione not wanting to date him. He was quite in love with her."

"I don't think she was the only one he was in love with."

I turned my head in surprise. It wasn't Draco who had spoken; it was Greg.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that if he's taking your dating Draco this badly, chances are he had strong feelings for you too, even if it was only subconscious."

"I bet he's right," Draco agreed. "Sure he hates me and that's a blow to him, but the way he's acting it really does look like he had feelings for you that were more than that of a friend."

"Shit. What am I supposed to do about that?"

"I don't think there's anything you can do, love. You've just got to give him time."

I felt miserable thinking that I might have broken my best friend's heart like that, but I was consoled when Draco kissed my cheek tenderly. I was happy to have Draco, but part of me was still feeling Ron's pain along with him. He hadn't done anything so bad in his life to deserve him being so poorly treated in love.

During the classes that day I constantly had to reassure myself that Draco was safe while Greg and Vince were around him. If it weren't for them I knew I would have worried myself to death every time I had a class apart from Draco, which was most of the day. I tried more than once to talk to Ron, but he continued to ignore me and everyone else. I could see that Seamus was equally upset by Ron's behavior, as Ron continually rejected Seamus' concern. During most of the day I sat with Hermione, who was one of the few Gryffindors who seemed genuinely happy for me and Draco. 

During Care of Magical Creatures I tried to casually inquire whether she was in a relationship with anyone, but she quickly blew off the question. I wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, but her skills in changing the topic forbade me asking again.

* * *

As soon as my last class was over, I practically ran to the dungeons to meet with Draco. Every second away from him honestly felt like a lifetime. We chose to do our homework in his room that night, rather than in the Slytherin commons room, which had explosive results the night before. 

As we practically lay in each other's laps while doing our studies a large black hawk with a note tied to his left leg flew in the window and alighted on Draco's book. The reaction in Draco was immediate. His entire body stiffened, I could tell, with fear. Whatever this bird was terrified him. 

"It's Father's," he barely whispered.

I wasn't sure what to do. Draco showed no signs of intending to open the letter, or even touch the large bird.

"Do you want me to open it for you, love?"

"No… I'll do it."

As soon as Draco untied the note the hawk flew away, much to my own relief. I looked away from receding figure of the hawk back to Draco who had already opened the note. His face had gone deathly pale.

__

To be continued…


End file.
